Another Poet / Response

To celebrate the release of NPEP student Erika Ray’s new collection of poetry 42 and Freedom, the Northwestern Insider has published four of her poems. NPEP graduate Dré Patterson responded to the poem, “Another Poet,” with a poem of his own.

Another Poet

By Erika Ray

I am just another poet, so as you can imagine/ words roll off my lips easily, like the spreading of jam instead of jelly/ I am just another poet. When I write, memories of Suge in her sexy sparkly red dress flood me/ because I am sister/ A Sister Poet/ speaking for me, you, her, us, all women/ an unheard poet/ locked inside of a fearless warrior/ I am just another poet, words spilling from my pen like white excited eyes watching "Gone with the Wind"/ I am a poet/ just another poet, beautifully black like Sydney/ profoundly majestic like Ava/ unearthly phenomenal like Maya/ I am just another poet/ draped in dreams/ dripping with an incentive for her/she/they that are brave enough to step in front of my words/ I am just another poet/ just another/ just another/ another/ poet.

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Response (a poem)

By Dré Patterson

I thought I was brave enough –

She told me there was an incentive

If I just stood there and took the shots

No cover up.

But I had on a vest.

As her words pummeled me with the sharpness of body piercing

Armor piercers,

I realized that I wasn’t actually being

Brave.

I shed the vest.

Stop

Hiding

That’s what I’m talkin’ ‘bout.

She took aim.

I poked out my chest like I thought a man was

Supposed to do,

Secretly hoping that I would be immune to her arsenal

Like the Oankal

In an Octavia Butler story.

But the very first shot

Was to the dome,

Piercing my psyche

Threatening to

Free me.

As I lost consciousness

I asked

Do I really want this

Free “dome”?